Connecticut police officers drew their guns on Yankees general manager Brian Cashman at a gas station on Friday after the team executive was mistaken for an armed car thief, according to a report from the New York Post.
Here’s how it was described from Cashman’s perspective. He was quite eager to compliment the officers:
As Cashman pulled out of the gas station as many as five patrol cars zoned in on him and between six to nine officers got out of their cars with their “guns drawn,” he said.
“They executed a very tactful interception,” Cashman said.
“They’re clearly very professional and trained and they asked me to turn my car off, exit the vehicle, walk backwards towards them…they were executing their duty.”
Cashman said he was told to “not make any rash movements” as he exited his Jeep.
Cashman told the Post that the cops originally surrounded his white Jeep because they were on the lookout for a person driving that exact car who had brandished a gun at a nearby doctor’s office. His situation only went from bad to worse after the officers ran his license plate and discovered that the car he was driving was reported as stolen just a few days earlier. But there was apparently an easy explanation for that: NYPD never took Cashman’s vehicle off the stolen car list.
The Yankees executive reported his white Jeep stolen last Sunday to the Norwalk Police Department. NYPD found it on Tuesday in the Bronx, and Cashman picked it up from a nearby auto shop on Wednesday, even though the car was still listed as stolen in police databases—also keep in mind that he was able to retrieve his car and pay towing fees without any issues. He then called Norwalk police, said he’d get the car over to them by Friday to be processed for evidence, and was actually on his way to do just that before this whole ordeal went down. To avoid any further issues, the Darien cops that surrounded him escorted him to their police station to resolve things.
Rather than point out the systematic flaws that could have gotten him in serious trouble, and anyone else potentially killed, Cashman instead reiterated to the Post just how much he loves the police and how this whole experience actually increased his trust in these officers’ crime-solving abilities:
“The public should take encouragement when someone is in a stolen vehicle they’re not going to get very far,” he said.
“I have high respect for all law enforcement. They do an amazing job whether you’re in Connecticut and New York City — and sometimes unique circumstances can occur.”
“Unique circumstances” is certainly one way to put it.